Update on Reorganization from Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark
Whitney
DOE EM
July 21, 2016
Colleagues,
We are happy to announce that the reorganization of EM headquarters will go into effect on July 24. We want to thank our partners in the NTEU for their
collaboration as we have moved forward with this reorganization, and we look forward to continuing our strong working relationship as we begin implementation.
As we've previously announced, the following have agreed to serve in new Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (APDAS) positions:
* Stacy Charboneau, APDAS for Field Operations;
* Frank Marcinowski, APDAS for Regulatory and Policy Affairs; and
* Candice Trummell, APDAS for Corporate Services
These new positions are critical to our plans for strengthening EM-HQ oversight and accountability, and for strengthening mission focus by streamlining reporting lines.
An updated organizational chart is now available for review on the EM portal.
We also want to take this
opportunity to announce the selection of new managers for two of our EM field offices:
Doug Shoop, Manager for the Richland Operations Office (RL) Shoop has served as RL Deputy Manager since early 2008, during which he was responsible for managing and overseeing multiple hazard Category 2 and 3 nuclear facilities; numerous complex environmental restoration projects; facility decontamination
and decommissioning operations; and multiple waste site remediation activities. Additional leadership positions include Assistant Manager for Safety and Engineering; Division Director for Safety, Health and Quality; and Senior Technical Advisor. He has also held positions within academia and private industry.
Robert Edwards, Manager for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Edwards
has served as acting PPPO manager since December 2015. He was named Deputy PPPO Manager on December 30, 2012. A member of the Senior Executive Service, Edwards has more than 29 years of substantive experience leading operations, engineering and program management efforts in highly complex nuclear and non-nuclear programs. Before coming to PPPO, he served in several management positions at the Savannah River Site including the Director of the Office of Safety and Quality Assurance, Director of
the Office and Safeguards, Security and Emergency Services and Director of the Nuclear Operations Division.
As Robert Edwards moves into the position of PPPO Manager, we are also pleased to announce that we are in the process of promoting Dr. Vince Adams into Robert's previous position as Deputy Manager. Dr. Adams has served as PPPO Site Director and Federal Project Director of the
Decontamination & Decommissioning Project for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. Prior to coming to PPPO, Dr. Adams served for 20 years in the Oak Ridge Operations Office in various leadership positions as well as at DOE-Headquarters as Office Director for the EM Groundwater & Soils program.
As we move forward in implementing our reorganization, we know that you may
still have questions or concerns. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your management for more information.
Sincerely,
Monica and Mark
Protests force DOE to abandon borehole project Hannah
Northey
July 21, 2016
The Obama administration is scrapping a contentious $35 million drilling project to study nuclear waste storage and geothermal energy after
running into intense local opposition in North and South Dakota, according to an email obtained by Greenwire.
The Department of Energy and the Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute "mutually agreed to walk away" from a five-year contract announced earlier this year to drill a 3-mile-deep experimental borehole into a rock formation near Rugby, N.D., Patricia Temple, a DOE legislative affairs
specialist, told employees in an email yesterday.
DOE will issue a new competitive solicitation in the coming weeks with "modified requirements, taking into account the lessons learned from our efforts thus far," Temple wrote.
The announcement marks a sharp detour for one of Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz's ambitious research initiatives. Moniz has repeatedly told members of Congress the approach could serve as an alternative to the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
It also shines a bright light on just how difficult it will be for DOE to site a nuclear waste repository.
DOE
ran into problems early on when it proposed drilling the experimental hole on 20 acres of state-owned land in North Dakota near the Canadian border (Greenwire, Feb. 15). The University of North Dakota, Texas-based Schlumberger Ltd., and Solexperts AG out of Mönchaltorf, Switzerland, were also awarded the contract.
Residents in the rural community weren't swayed by DOE's reassurances that nuclear
waste would not be placed in the cavity once it was drilled, with the hole simply serving as a science laboratory of sorts. They aired concerns at public meetings that allowing drilling would lead to permanent nuclear waste storage on their land, much of which is used for farming.
And in February, the Pierce County Commission placed a moratorium on deep borehole drilling in the
county.
DOE then set its sights on a second site in Spink County, S.D., but was also met with opposition. Spink County commissioners in a letter to Battelle last month said it was obvious the project does not have public support.
When asked to elaborate on what "lessons" the agency would incorporate into
its next solicitation, a DOE spokesman said the department learned that public engagement and support are "paramount" and that "relevant levels of government and other public stakeholders should be involved from the outset."
"We believe that the likelihood for success for a project like this can be increased significantly if government and public stakeholder engagement and support is evident in
advance of the selection of a site," the spokesman said. "Therefore, the new solicitation for the project will emphasize the importance of early government and public stakeholder engagement and support."
The Obama administration is also grappling with how to move past Yucca Mountain -- a project the White House has deemed unworkable -- while winning the public's consent.
In 2012, a blue-ribbon commission President Obama assembled to review the nation's nuclear waste policies recommended that the government use a consent-based siting process for developing long-term and interim nuclear waste storage sites. DOE is now holding meetings across the country for public feedback on how to define consent and move forward.
Attorney general seeks immediate help for Hanford workers
July 21,
2016
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Washington's attorney general on Thursday asked a federal judge to immediately take steps to protect Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers from exposure to chemical vapors.
More than 50 workers have received medical evaluations after reporting exposure to vapors in recent
months.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, along with the watchdog group Hanford Challenge and a labor union, filed motions for a preliminary injunction in federal court in Eastern Washington. The injunction seeks to prevent further harm to Hanford workers by implementing certain protections now, instead of waiting for the outcome of a trial.
The state filed a lawsuit against the federal government over Hanford worker safety last September. Trial is set for next May, but Ferguson says workers cannot wait that long to have a safe workplace.
Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons, and the site near Richland in southeastern Washington is now engaged in
a massive cleanup of the resulting radioactive wastes.
The wastes are stored in 177 massive underground tanks, and it is vapors escaping from some of those tanks that are thought to be making workers sick. The vapors are invisible and are not radioactive. Their exact content is not known because the exact contents of the tanks, some dating back to World War II, are not known.
"How many sick Washington workers will it take before the federal government fixes this problem?" Ferguson said in a press release. "The federal government's culture of indifference to worker safety at Hanford must end. Now."
Washington River Protection Solutions, the U.S. Department of Energy's contractor for the tanks, said
it was committed to the safety of workers and disappointed by the actions of the attorney general.
"We believe the claims are not reflective of the safe work our team is accomplishing in the tank farms' challenging environment," WRPS said in a press release. "While we review the motion, we will work with the Department of Energy on an appropriate path forward."
All of the workers who recently reported exposure to chemical vapors were checked by medical personnel and cleared to return to work, WRPS has said.
But Hanford critics contend that this issue has been going on for decades.
"Too
many workers have already gotten sick and even disabled by brain and lung diseases," said Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge. "Hanford's cleanup mission will last decades, and workers deserve a safe workplace now and into the future,"
By pursuing a preliminary injunction, Ferguson, Hanford Challenge and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 seek to prevent further harm to workers by
implementing certain protections now. They seek:
- Mandatory use of bottled air at all times for all personnel working within the perimeter fence lines of the tanks and those working inside the vapor control zone.
- When waste is disturbed, they seek an expanded vapor control zone not less than 200 feet
outside the perimeter fence line, and barricading of all roads and access points to prevent entry into the expanded zone.
- Installation of additional monitoring and alarm equipment to warn workers when toxic vapors are being emitted.
Between late April and the end of June, 56 workers reported they were
exposed to vapors, the attorney general's office said. Within minutes to hours after breathing the fumes, workers experienced nosebleeds, chest and lung pain, headaches, coughing, sore throats, irritated eyes, and difficulty breathing, the attorney general's office said.
Hundreds of workers have reported similar exposures since the early 1980s.
DOE Issues Sources Sought/Request for Information for Potential Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Technical Support Services Procurement(s)
July 21,
2016
Cincinnati -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) today issued a Sources Sought/Request for Information (RFI) seeking interested parties with specialized capabilities for the Environmental Management (EM) Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Technical Support Services procurement(s). The RFI is being used for market research for
identifying interested and capable sources and developing its acquisition strategy.
The primary purpose of the contract(s) will be to provide a full range of services to assist DOE with the oversight and management of the clean-up activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP)/site in Pike County, OH; the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant/site in Paducah, KY; the Depleted Uranium
Hexafluoride Conversion Project (DUF6) in Pike County, OH and Paducah, KY; and to provide various technical engineering functions, information technology infrastructure support, safeguards and security oversight, and general administrative support at the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office, in Lexington, KY.
DOE is seeking feedback from interested parties with the specialized capabilities necessary to
meet the requirements of the elements of scope for the PPPO Technical Support Services procurement(s) and to further determine whether the work or a portion of the work could be set-aside for small and/or disadvantaged businesses. The anticipated type of contract, period of performance, amount of funding, or set aside possibilities have not been determined.
This Sources Sought/RFI is for market
research purposes only and no proposals are being sought. The announcement is posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website at: https://www.FBO.gov/ and on the procurement website at: https://www.emcbc.doe.gov/SEB/pppo_technical_services/.
